How Long Can You Stay Dedicated?

This was a week where I felt the toll of the whole season.

I had a noticeably higher general level of fatigue.

This season has been long and tiring,

But now the most important part is upon us:

The playoffs.

Every team and player is beat down and tired, but not every one is going to go home a champ.

I either go home a tired loser or a tired champ.

I know what I’m picking.

Read until the end for a quick Atypical Merch Drop Update.

Why I Do This:

After every game home or away, I will take pictures with every person that wants one and I’ll smile every time.

This mother and son were really nervous to ask for a picture probably a mix of not speaking the same language as me and also just the general awkwardness of asking for a picture.

I took it, smiled and ruffled the hair of the young boy.

Now I know we could not exactly communicate through the same language, but a language was spoken through that interaction.

I said I cared, and they said they appreciated it. I want to spread joy, positivity and unity in any way I can. This interaction made me feel that I did even if just a little bit.

This why I do this.

Basketball Ideas I’ve Been Experimenting With

Learning “Activity”

In the basketball world, the word ‘activity’ is used a lot when referring to players. Coaches love ‘active’ players and will usually play them more simply because of it.

So what is it and how do we be “more active” on the court?

I define activity as a player’s movement, impact, body language, and alertness during a basketball game. An active player is that player that seems to be everywhere on the court. They seem to get every loose ball and when watching a game, it is hard not to notice them. They could be the most important player on the floor and may not even be the one scoring much. Some statistics that represent activity are things like deflections, steals, charges, offensive rebounds, forced turnovers, points off cuts, ect.

Activity is one of those things that does not take the most talent to have, but it does require a high level of mental dexterity. What I mean is that you need to be able to be mentally dialed in and alert for a long period of time and consistently in order to be active.

A simple way to increase your activity on the court is to reframe what activity is. Being active does not necessarily mean hustling more and running faster, but, more so, being mentally alert to get into the right spots on the court at the right time.

Don’t play harder, process the game faster.

The idea is that you can be in the right spot more if you know where the right spot is sooner.

To increase this ability, you need to watch more live basketball, but watch with “how” and “why” filters.

When watching live hoops, see how often you can watch from learning point of view rather than an entertainment point of view. In this learning point of view, it is important to continuously search for “how” and “why” plays are happening.

A good way exercise these filters is to remember what happened 3 seconds before the highlight play.

Imagine LeBron gets a steal into a fastbreak dunk. Instead of being wowed by the dunk, question as to how he got the steal that led to the dunk in the first place:

What was he seeing?

Why did he jump the passing lane?

How was his positioning?

The more you watch live basketball this way, the more you will be able to recognize these patterns and see the reads that are being made. The next and essential step is to now consciously search for these opportunities in your actual training and live repetitions.

Again assuming that you are playing hard every time you are in the game and training, experiment with learning where the ‘right’ spot is on the court. Treat it like a mental game or exercise, and watch as you stumble into more loose balls, steals, offensive rebounds, and even charges.

You do not need to be the most athletic player on the court to be the most active.

Coaches love active.

Coaches play active.

Train your activity.

Mindset Ideas I’ve Been Workshopping

The Sickness of Improvement

When hungry to get better at something, it can be easy to become overly obsessed with the progression, to lose your bearings of reality. I found this pattern in myself and found it to be common with other highly motivated basketball players and people in general.

Life becomes all about getting better no matter the cost. That cost ends up being a variety of things, our mental health, our relationships, and our body.

Our identity becomes improvement.

Every moment we are not improving feels like suffering because we placed our whole value in becoming more. The once empowering idea of getting better begins to feel more like a trap of a never ending ‘hustle’ or ‘grind’. What was once self-betterment has been sabotaged to become self-deprecation.

Most of you guys reading this will feel this to your core because there’s a good chance you subscribed to this newsletter with hopes to find new ways to grow yourself and your basketball game.

I’ve been feeling this way and I felt it to be important to give you guys a warning.

Be hungry for improvement, but be cautious of how consuming your hunger becomes.

My remedy is to slow down,

to focus on what is right in front of me.

to appreciate where I am at now,

and to remember that this part of the journey only happens once.

Honor your growth by being present in the journey and respecting the moment you have now.

How beautiful this journey is.

How lucky we are to get to pursue greatness in something we are passionate about.

Your relationships, your mental, your body, and simply you as a person is meant to be treasured.

This life is gold.

A Couple Tips To Plan Your Off-Season

I usually plan my off-season training the two days directly after the season. I’ll give some thought to it right now (about a month left to go), but nothing on paper. When making my off-season training, there are a couple of things I do that I think could help you as well.

I’ll make a rough list here:

1. Write out 3 clear goals or themes: Basketball Skill, Physical Capability, and a Mindset Adjustment.

2. Look at the time you have for this “training block”, let say 2-3 months, and segment a bell-curve.

This bell-curve represents the volume/intensity of training. For example, I have a roughly 2-month off-season. The first two weeks will be less aggressive on-court work and more physical recovery. The next five weeks will be ramped up basketball training with competition plus intense weight room work. The final week will be scaled back with a focus on my body and game feeling prepared and ready for a preseason training camp.

3. Identify 2-3 people that will be helping you in your training.

   This could be family members, paided trainers or strength coaches, or even YouTube trainers that produce helpful training content. I highly recommend if you have the funds to invest in a trainer that can look at your game from a more objective position. When hiring a trainer, make sure they have your best interest in mind. If they are too expensive, then try to offer a work for training type of deal (you rebound for some of their other workouts in exchange for getting to be in one of them).

4. Try to play as much live, structured basketball as you can without absolutely overloading your body. This can be 1v1s, 2v2s, 5v5s, but make sure there is a clear prioritization on development and a clear intention behind ever situational. I am not entirely against AAU or summer basketball teams, but, unless you are in a make or break recruitment year, I believe taking a step in your game and development almost always pays more down the road than these AAU environments.

5. Identify where you will train first before making the plan.

   Lock down what gyms you will train at and the level of access you will have. Nobody wants to make a huge training plan only to realize they have nowhere to do the actual training.

Double YouTube Drop This Week

The long awaited finale of the Portuguese League Cup is here. This felt amazing to bring home a trophy for Benfica, and was a great segway into the league playoffs.

Speaking of playoffs, in order to get you guys hyped for it, we made a fun season recap/hype video. This was a new style of video, but I think it turned out great and was really well done. I would love to hear your guys’ thoughts on it.

Quick Merch Update

Still waiting on the second sample, it should be here this week.

I hope you guys are aas impatient as I am about this one hahaha

If you want to be in the first group alerted for the pre-order, fill out this little survey to be put on the list.

I’ll Leave You With This:

Anything worth doing is going to be difficult and tiring.

Respect the work by finishing strong.

That is what I am going to do this playoffs.

Time to turn it up a notch, so that when I am on that plane back to America, I’ll know I gave everything this year.

Playoff mode…

Love you guys,

Trey